Twilight at the Rim

We took a family trip down to Crater Lake and saw this beautiful sunset!  Crater Lake is a collapsed volcano that after it exploded, the lake formed inside the rim.  Then the neat island (Wizard Island) started to form in the lake as the volcano cone started to grow again - so cool!

 

It was a great trip - I brought my bike along and had a great day of cycling around the 35mi Rim Road which circles the rim of the volcano and has great views of the lake along the way. The views were amazing as the winding road bumped up near the rim here and there along the way!  Despite a blowout and a flat, it was still an awesome ride!

 

The weather was perfect fall temps for sightseeing afterwards and we had this awesome sunset and pink glow in the lake at twilight. 

 

Find it here: 42°54’39” N;  122°8’30” W

 

Lightning Strikes Devils Tower

Spent a night camping here and was treated to a lightning storm!

I’d been to Devils Tower once before but the harsh daylight didn’t make for such great photo so when I planned this trip I knew I had to camp overnight.

Originally, I hoped for a nighttime photo of the Tower with stars in the background, but a storm rolled in. The clouds were dark and moody so I set up on the hill anyway. I was out for a couple hours waiting for a great shot and a break in the rain when the lightning started, so cool (and a little scary!)

find it here:  44°35’4” N;  104°41’49” W

Emerald City

An unexpected landslide in Big Sur made this photo even better!

A while back we took a road trip from Southern California to San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a great drive up the coast until we got almost to Big Sur only to find that a landslide closed the PCH ahead of us and we had to back track a few hours south then north on the CA-99 to get around it. I was bummed That it put us a day behind schedule and into a rain storm when we got to SF. I had really wanted to get a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge from this spot but there was torrential rains coming straight at us on when we got there on both attempts. I almost thought I wouldn’t get it but as we were leaving town to drive home, we crossed the bridge one more time hit a spot of no rain to get this photo here. Had we made it to SF as originally planned, it would probably have been full sun and a less interesting photo than with these cool moody clouds :)

Find it here: 37°49’43” N; 122°29’9” W

Beach Day at the Edge of the World

Coulter Bay on Jackson Lake in Teton National Park. There was this really cool storm forming just west of the Tetons in Idaho. We were listening to an Idaho AM radio station broadcasting the emergency warning and hearing the lighting “pops” crackle through the radio. This beach is covered with these large flat/smooth stones thus the course look to it.  Just after taking this photo, it started to rain, one of those really cold summer mountain rains, it was awesome!

Find this here:  43°54’21” N; 110°38’51” W

Wyoming Highway Sunset

On our last drive from Wisconsin to we stopped to check out Devil’s Tower in Wyoming and then got back on I-90 westbound for Sheridan, WY.  Shortly after we go on I-90, the sun started to set with these neat clouds on the horizon.  There was very little traffic on the freeway so I was able to jump out in the middle of it and snap these (while Anne was freaking out a little since I was in the road).

Find this here:  44° 17’ 37” N; 105° 9’ 25” W